When I began this project, I was unsure about how it would progress. I doubted that my concept was strong enough but over the time I spent working on it, life happened and this effected my project in a very positive way.

Fortunately for me, my individual project connects well with the outcome of our collaborative project as both were focused around found Photography and family photographs from history. The difference being that our collaborative project, ‘Familienalben’ looked further back in time when black and white analogue was the only format of photography. Compared to looking at the overwelming feeling of looking at old found photography, I used my individual project to investigate the feelings of home (something more familiar and calming) and how it is a part of you. Home seems to go with you and leave footprints as it follows you. I think my individual project as well as the other members of my group could have gone side by side with out collaborative project to tell more sides of the story in looking at memories and the past and ‘exploding’ our imagery in different ways.

This project has taught me a lot. I feel like i’ve really grown as an artist through working towards both the individual and collaborate projects. I’ve learnt that photography can be even more hands on and creative and I’d love to explore this further in the future, looking at other ways to explode images through distortion and other means. You don’t just have to create imagery from scratch, it has come clear to me that you can use found photography to make your own art. This can be as a sculpture, moving image or an extension of the photography there already was.

Berenice Abbot said ‘Photography can only represent the present. Once photographed the subject becomes part of the past’. I agree with this somewhat. I believe that photography has many different layers and you can also have part of the past, present and future in the imagery you create.

In terms of our collaborative project, I believe we worked well as a team. We all contributed in our own way, for me that involved the installation of the work and creating the final image. Everyone pulled their weight in different ways and using a group conversation on Facebook meant that we were always able to contact each other with questions, advice, planning etc. The bigger decisions were decided by arranging to meet with each other. We accessed materials such as the display boards from the campus and worked together to transport them to the exhibition space. Being a small group meant that we could all get involved a lot more than if there were more of us but also meant that we had each other to troubleshoot anything and go through any problems that needed solving such as the art work coming away from the boards.

To save time and ensure that everyone was doing something productive towards the final outcome, one team member and I went to the location to shoot our final image. Whilst we did this, the other group members continued putting the work on the boards until we returned to assist them again. One of those members scanned in the processed negatives in the digital dark room once we had returned with them. During the shooting process we took it in turns with the hassleblad as this meant we could gather the imagery from two different view points and ways of working. It meant that we had more of a variety to choose from as a group.

Although we are all different and have different opinions on things, we were able to compromise and create the effective final piece. It meant we all learnt something new and seeing other individuals insights helped in order to expand our set ways of thinking and doing things.

Technically, I feel like I have grown a lot during this project. I have had more crucial experience in medium and large format which means that I can to some extent pick up this equipment and have some level of confidence in using it. If I was to do this again, I would research further into the technology and experiment with it a little more so that I had greater confidence in using it. I would also ensure that no matter what is going on in my life, I make it to as many lectures as possible as this is valuable information which I missed out on when I didn’t attend a couple of lectures/ workshops.

As well as this, in the future I would like to experiment even further with exploding my images. I have done a fair amount of research for this project, from attending exhibitions and galleries both locally and in London to looking at different practitioners online and I would love to take some inspiration from them to become even more creative with my image making.

On the whole, I feel like I worked well when completing this assignment. Although this hand in is late, and I didn’t attend a few lectures at the beginning, I have picked myself back up and now ensure I attend every lecture. I extended this project with the extra time I had and really feel like I got the most out of it. I believe my team work skills are improving every day and I’m generally quite proud of the overall outcome.